The Merlin Effect Read Online Free PDF Page A

simple child’s entertainment. Yet to Emrys, it held a seed of hope. He vowed never to rest until he discovered whether the ancient ruler Merwas still lived beneath the waves.
    But where was this land of Shaa?
The place where the sea begins, the womb where the waters are born.
It was not much of a clue, but it was all that Emrys had.
    With his superior skills, he fashioned a hood that allowed him to breathe underwater with the ease of a fish. He descended into the sea, full of renewed hope. Yet soon he began to realize the enormity of his challenge. The realm of Shaa, if it did exist, would be nearly impossible to find. So vast were the many seas, he would have barely begun hissearch before his remaining life ran out. Still, he vowed to persist.
    Years passed, and although he followed many leads under the sea, he was ever disappointed. Even his ring of power and his flashing sword could not help him. He began to wonder whether he had really heard the story of Shaa at all, or whether it was only a remnant from his fevered dreams.
    One day Emrys smelled the sweet aroma of an underwater plant called apple-of-the-sea. It reminded him of apple blossoms in the spring. For a moment he felt captivated by the perfume, and he strolled in memory through apple groves he would never again see on the land.
    Then, out of a crevasse before him, a strange form arose. First came the head of a woman, with long black hair flowing over her shoulders. She seemed darkly beautiful, although her eyes were shadowed, almost sunken, so that they gave the impression of being bottomless. With a gasp Emrys realized that, below her shoulders, her body was nothing more than a cloud of dark vapor, curling and twisting like smoke. Two thin, wispy arms formed out of the cloud, one of them clasping a dagger in its vaporous hand.
    “Who are you?” asked Emrys, his own hand on the sword of light.
    “Nimue issss my name.” Her voice hissed like steam vapor.
    “What do you want from me?”
    She pointed at his ruby ring. “It issss beautiful.”
    Emrys drew back.
    Nimue watched him, coiling and uncoiling her vaporous arms. “It would sssseem a ssssmall pricccce to pay…to find the ssssecret entrancccce to the realm of Shaa.”
    “You know the way to Shaa?”
    “An enchantressss knowssss many thingssss.”
    Emrys hesitated. The ring had helped him often over the years. Yet he knew also that soon he would die and the ring would then serve him no more. Although it was probably folly to trust the enchantress, what did he have to lose? Giving Nimue the ring seemed a small price to pay for a chance to achieve immortality.
    So Emrys agreed to the bargain. Nimue took the ring and scrutinized it carefully with her bottomless eyes. Then, wordlessly, she beckoned to her servants, a band of enormous eels with triangular heads and massive jaws who had been hiding in the shadows. Emrys knew at once that they were sea demons, among the most feared creatures in the ocean. His blood chilled at the very sight of them.
    Yet the sea demons did not attack. They merely surrounded Nimue with their slithering bodies. Cautiously, Emrys followed as they led him some distance to the mouth of a deep abyss dropping down from the bottom of the sea. Here, declared Nimue, was the entrance to the secret realm ruled by Merwas.
    Then Emrys noticed that the abyss was guarded by a monstrous beast of the sea, a spidery creature with many powerful legs. Though the creature had only two narrow slits for eyes, it seemed to sense the presence of intruders. Its huge jaw opened a crack, revealing a thousand poisonous tongues.
    “Treachery!” cried Emrys. “That monster will never let me pass.”
    But Nimue only laughed and hissed, “I ssssaid I would bring you to the door. I did not ssssay I would open it for you.” With that, she turned her vaporous form and melted into the dark waters, followed by the sea demons.
    Before Emrys could decide what to do, the monster stirredand suddenly attacked.